Khamzat Chimaev is a force to be reckoned with in the world of MMA. He is known for his ferocious grappling, relentless pressure, and making his opponents tap out more often than not. Nicknamed “Borz,” which translates to wolf, he’s been a terrifying fighter for many of his opponents and has been waiting for a title shot. He fights in the middleweight division and is after the belt. The current middleweight champion, Dricus Du Plessis is also awaiting his next match and it is highly likely that Chimaev is next.
Dana White, President of the UFC, has been making the Russian wait for a shot at the title and Chimaev is not happy. He has a perfect record of 14-0-0 so far in his MMA career and is 8-0 in his UFC career. Chimaev has not fought since October of 2024 and since Du Plessis is also waiting for his next opponent, White should definitely set this fight up and give the fans what they want to see.
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Chimaev has taken down some of the best fighters in the middleweight division and while some wins came pretty easy, there were others that were a hard fought victory. Recently, Chimaev revealed the toughest fighter he’s faced so far in the UFC. So let’s see who that is.
When Chimaev was asked about who the hardest opponent he ever faced was, he simply replied “Kamaru Usman.” The Russian also added “I was trying to choke him for five minutes, but he defended well.”
At UFC 294, on October of 2023, we saw Khamzat Chimaev take on Kamaru Usman and that is still some of the best fights we’ve ever seen. Both of these fighters were unwilling to go down and the bout went down to the wire. Even though Chimaev came out on top at the end, he barely won the fight. In fact the fight was so close and entertaining that almost every fan wanted them to fight for five rounds rather than three and even Usman himself wished that the Chimaev fight was five rounds.
Chimaev usually likes to finish his fights very early but that did not happen against Usman. The Russian was 4/12 when it came to his takedowns, and had just 33.3 % success rate. In terms of significant strikes, Chimaev had 38 whereas Usman had 36. The majority of the stats were extremely close but the one that may have costed Usman the fight is in total strikes. Chimaev had connected 107 total strikes compared to Usman’s 58 (difference of 49).
The fight could have gone either ways but Chimaev, somehow, still managed to remain undefeated.
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